It is estimated that number of the pollen allergy patients in this nation approaches about 20% of the entire people; however, the present situation is that a fundamental mean for cure the disease has not been established yet in spite of such a large number. Under such situation, a symptomatic therapy and a hyposensitization therapy are used as the medical care for the disease, wherein wearing of a mask and use of an air cleaner are still major effective means as cheap and convenient countermeasures for the pollen. The situation like this seems much the same in rest of the world.
In the past, it has been proposed to use a material or a substance having a function to adsorb or inactivate a pollen and an allergen in a mask and a filter product. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-5531 (Patent Document 1), a tea polyphenol is proposed as a substance to inactivate an allergic activity of an allergen substance. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-167332 (Patent Document 2), it is disclosed to adsorb an allergen by a non-woven fabric to which an inorganic microparticle such as silica and titanium oxide is supported. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-204401 (Patent Document 3), a pollen-adsorbing material using a polymer fiber having a positively-charged functional group such as a quaternary ammonium salt is proposed.
As mentioned above, various countermeasures have been investigated in the past; however, with the aims not only to continuously improve its removing effect but also to be effective on a wide variety of allergen, bacteria, or virus, development of a totally new type of an allergen adsorbent is desired.